1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a picture printing system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a printing system shared by a camera using a film and a digital camera, for printing pictures recorded by both types of cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
A picture printing system has been known which obtains an image signal by reading a picture image recorded on a film with a film scanner, digitizes the obtained signal, and outputs the digital image data in the form of a picture print after image processing for correcting a color or tone is carried out on the digital image data.
On the other hand, a digital camera which records a picture image using an electronic image pickup device instead of a film is becoming widespread, and it is necessary for a picture image recorded by a digital camera to be output in the form of a print.
A picture recorded by a digital camera is normally displayed on a liquid crystal monitor attached to the digital camera, a TV screen, or a personal computer display, rather than output as a picture print. Therefore, an aspect ratio of the picture recorded by a digital camera is different from that of a picture recorded by a camera using a film.
Some conventional picture printing systems as described above have a function for accepting digital image data input via a floppy disc or the like. However, this function is provided for temporarily storing a picture image read from a film in a floppy disc or the like, and for reproducing the image later. Therefore, this function cannot deal with the wide variety of aspect ratios of pictures recorded by a digital camera.
For this reason, when a picture recorded by a digital camera needs to be printed out using the digital input function of the conventional picture printing system, an appropriate picture print cannot be obtained due to a large area being trimmed, for example.
One method of solving this problem is to provide an additional printing system for printing a picture recorded by a digital camera. However, this method does not seem to be a practical solution due to problems regarding cost, a place to set the system in, and an operational flow, when a printing system for a picture recorded by a camera using a film already exists. Therefore, a picture printing system is desired which can print a picture recorded by a digital camera effectively in terms of time, space, and cost.